Isaiah 53:5: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.

St Maria Faustina Kowalska - Saint of the Divine Mercy; The Devotion for our Times

5th October, the Feast Day of St. Faustina Kowalska secretary of Jesus Divine Mercy. Born Helena Kowalska on August 25th 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland. – At the age of 33, Sister Faustina died in Krakow of tuberculosis. She went home to the Lord on October 5, 1938. In 1968, the process of beatification was started in Rome. On April 13, 1993, after completion of the beatification process, Pope John Paul II declared that Sister Faustina would be known as Blessed Faustina.

It was just seven years later — on April 30, 2000 — that Sister Faustina was elevated to the title of Saint Faustina. The declaration of her sainthood was scheduled on a Sunday of particular importance to Sister Faustina. April 30th was the Sunday after Easter which was also the Sunday Sister Faustina said Jesus would like dedicated to his Divine Mercy. St. Faustina wrote about her spiritual experiences and her conversations with Jesus in her Diary.

"I am to write down the encounters of my soul with You, O God, at the moments of Your special visitations. I am to write about You, O Incomprehensible in mercy towards my poor soul. Your holy will is the life of my soul. I have received this order through him who is for me Your representative here on earth, who interprets Your holy Will to me. Jesus, You see how difficult it is for me to write, how unable I am to put down clearly what I experience in my soul. O God, can a pen write down that for which many a time there are no words? But You give the order to write, O God; that is enough for me." (Diary, 6).

"[April] 26. On Friday, when I was at Ostra Brama to attend the ceremony during which the image was displayed, I heard a sermon given by my confessor [Father Sopocko]. This sermon about Divine Mercy was the first of the things that Jesus had asked for so very long ago. When he began to speak about the great mercy of the Lord, the image came alive and the rays pierced the hearts of the people gathered there, but not all to the same degree. Some received more, some less. Great joy filled my soul to see the grace of God.

Then I heard the words, You are a witness of My mercy. You shall stand before My throne forever as a living witness to My mercy." (Diary, 417)

Jesus makes great promises to those who spread this devotion and trust in Him...

"But God has promised a great grace especially to you and to all those... who will proclaim My great mercy. I shall protect them Myself at the hour of death, as My own glory. And even if the sins of soul are as dark as night, when the sinner turns to My mercy he gives Me the greatest praise and is the glory of My Passion. When a soul praises My goodness, Satan trembles before it and flees to the very bottom of hell." (Diary, 378)

"Souls who spread the honor of My mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant, and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Savior. At that last hour, a soul has nothing with which to defend itself except My mercy. Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it. " (Diary, 1075)

" The Lord said to me, My daughter, do not tire of proclaiming My mercy. In this way you will refresh this Heart of Mine, which burns with a flame of pity for sinners. Tell My priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing their words when they speak about My unfathomable mercy, about the compassion I have for them in My Heart. To priests who proclaim and extol My mercy, I will give wondrous power; I will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak." (Diary, 1521)

Jesus also warns those who do not recognise the Message of Divine Mercy which is His work to save souls from eternal damnation. Let us pray to St. Faustina that all Priests will become more open to this work of Mercy of Jesus and establish the Feast Day properly in their Churches for the next Divine Mercy Sunday May 1st 2011 and that His Image of Divine Mercy be placed in a prominent place in our Churches and be properly venerated so that all souls may have access to it. We must never undermine the importance of this great devotion to save souls and to free souls from their suffering in purgatory.

When once I asked the Lord Jesus how He could tolerate so many sins and crimes and not punish them, the Lord answered me, I have eternity for punishing [these], and so I am prolonging the time of Mercy for the sake of [sinners]. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation. My daughter, secretary of My Mercy, your duty is not only to write about and proclaim My Mercy, but also to beg for this grace for them, so that they too may glorify My Mercy.

Excerpts of the Pope's Sermon on the Feast of the Sacred Heart 2010

The most important of those texts in today’s liturgy is Psalm 23(22) – “The Lord is my shepherd” – in which Israel at prayer received God’s self-revelation as shepherd, and made this the guide of its own life. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”: this first verse expresses joy and gratitude for the fact that God is present to and concerned for us. The reading from the Book of Ezechiel begins with the same theme: “I myself will look after and tend my sheep” (Ez 34:11). God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered. God looks after me. He is not a distant God, for whom my life is worthless.

Another part of this sermon

“Your rod and your staff – they comfort me”: the shepherd needs the rod as protection against savage beasts ready to pounce on the flock; against robbers looking for prey. Along with the rod there is the staff which gives support and helps to make difficult crossings. Both of these are likewise part of the Church’s ministry, of the priest’s ministry. The Church too must use the shepherd’s rod, the rod with which he protects the faith against those who falsify it, against currents which lead the flock astray. The use of the rod can actually be a service of love. Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor does it have to do with love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away, as if it were something that we ourselves had invented. As if it were no longer God’s gift, the precious pearl which we cannot let be taken from us. Even so, the rod must always become once again the shepherd’s staff – a staff which helps men and women to tread difficult paths and to follow the Lord.

From the Catechism..

The Holy Eucharist

1324 The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life."136 "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."137

Quote

Our Lord Jesus to St. Faustina - My daughter, just as you prepare in My presence, so also you make your confession before Me. The person of the priest is, for Me, only a screen. Never analyse what sort of a priest it is that I am making use of; open your soul in confession as you would to Me, and I will fill it with My light. (1725)